In nearly every realm of daily life there is an invisible velvet rope that divides how we live. On one side, appointments are secured, queues are skipped and doors are opened. On the other, people fight for an empty seat on the plane, a place in line at a theme park or even a medical exam.

Schwartz shows how business innovators have stepped in to exploit the gap between the rich and everyone else, shifting services away from the masses and finding new ways to profit by servin ...